The seven missile launches carried out by North Korea in recent weeks were simulations “tactical nuclear”and were personally supervised by leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said on Monday.
“Korean People’s Army Units (APC) responsible for the use of tactical nuclear weapons organized military exercises from September 25 to October 9 in order to verify and evaluate the country’s nuclear deterrence and counter-attack capability.wrote KCNA.
The agency justified these exercises by the joint American-South Korean military maneuvers in the region, “a regrettable attitude which further aggravates tension in the region while openly constituting a military threat” for North Korea, she said.
Simulation of “real war”
North Korea’s missile launches over the past two weeks were drills “simulating a real war”KCNA added. “Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and chairman of its Central Military Commission, led the military exercises on the spot”said the state agency.
While talks on the disarmament of North Korea have long been deadlocked, Pyongyang has stepped up its arms tests since the beginning of the year. In particular, it fired a ballistic missile over Japan last week, the first in five years.
Many experts and officials also believe that North Korea has completed preparations for a new nuclear test, which would be the seventh in its history and the first since 2017.